Microwave Oven

This tutorial was written with PSP 7, but should work with earlier versions.

All you need is the microwave.zip file.

The terms of use are here




1. First we'll make the control panel. Open a new image, 230 x 550 pixels. Flood-fill with black. (If you want a cream-coloured Micro, use #FFF7DE instead of black and #FFEEC1 instead of the darkest gray. The reason for the darker colour is that the Inner Bevel lightens the colour.)

Go to Selections - Select All and then
Selections - Modify - Contract 8 pixels.
Selections - Invert,

use the Magic Wand to select the outer border, and flood-fill with the darkest gray, #202020. Keep selected and go to

Effects - 3D Effects - Inner Bevel, and use the Round preset.
(For the cream colour, use the Metal preset for every Inner Bevel)



2. Make another layer, Crosspiece, and get crosspiece.sel by going to Selections - Load from Disk. Flood-fill with the darkest gray again (dark cream), and use the Round Inner Bevel.

3. Make another layer, Dial, and get dial.sel. Flood-fill with white, go to Selections - Modify - Contract 2 pixels and hit CTRL X. Then go to Selections - Invert, use the Magic Wand to click on any of the outer borders. (You may want to use the Zoom Tool to see better!) and go to Effects - Texture Effects and use the Gold preset, or use any Blade Pro gold preset you like.

4. Time for another layer--Upper Rectangles. Get upperrectangles.sel and flood-fill with the darkest gray (#202020) (dark cream).

5. Now, another layer--Start. Get start.sel, flood-fill with white, go to Selections - Modify - Contract - 3 pixels, hit CTRL-X and invert. Use the Magic Wand again to select the outer border and use Blade Pro or the effect you used on the dials.

6. New layer - Off button. Get offbutton.sel and flood-fill with red (I used #800000), go to Selections - Modify - Contract 2 pixels. Hit CTRL-X and you're done.

If you're making the cream oven, get creamclockbkg.sel
and flood-fill with a medium gray, or black.

7. Make a new layer, Text. Open the image you downloaded, text.psp (browntext.psp for cream colour), by clicking on it. Copy (CTRL-C) and go back to your control panel image and paste (CTRL-E). Use the Mover Tool to place it exactly. Now right-click on any layer in the Layer Pallette and Merge - Merge Visible.

The hard part is done!

8. Make a new image, 535 x 318 pixels and flood-fill with black (light cream). Turn off this layer by clicking on the glasses so you can see what you're doing on the next layer!

9. Make a new layer, Glass Panel, get glasspanel.sel and flood-fill with black (For the cream oven, use the same colour you used on the control panel glass.).

Go to Selections - Modify - Contract 15 pixels.
Go to Selections - Invert,

and use the Magic Wand to select the outside border. Flood-fill with the dark gray colour (dark cream), and then go to Effects - Inner Bevel and use the Round preset again.

Now you can turn on the bottom layer again if you wish.

10. Make a new layer, Handle Panel, get handlepanel.sel and flood-fill with the dark gray--this time, use the light cream colour..

11. Make a new layer, Handle, and get handle.sel. Flood-fill with black (dark cream) and use the Inner Bevel Round preset again.

12. Open the Control Panel image you made, copy (CTRL-C) and go back to your microwave image, get controlpanel.sel, and paste into the selection (SHIFT-CTRL-L).

If you want to add a mfr's name or logo, just use the Text Tool, making the text white and lower the opacity of the layer a bit.

You're all done! I hope you like your microwave.